They're Not Waving
by JudeIsRude
Summary: Pursuit Series. Client after client, case after case, it never gets any easier and they wouldn't have it any other way. Case 1: They're not Waving. A retired flag factory under redevelopment will need more than a new coat of paint to cover up these stains.
1. They're Not Waving: First Entry

Case 1: They're Not Waving : First entry

_Don't look back,_

'_Cause They're Not Waving_

_-Vyvienne Long_

In Shibuya Psychic Research's stark kitchenette, Mai stood with her sleeves rolled past her elbows and her converse-clad feet shoulder width apart, staring down her emotionless opponent. He stood strong, all in black, refusing to acknowledge the fuming brown eyed girl before him. His name was Hephaestus, and he was a porcelain teakettle. On another day, Mai might have referred to him affectionately as Stu, her faithful kitchen companion. January 6th, however was the exception to her usual good humor. Her previously steadfast kitchen crusader was now a crippled kettle, and in Mai's kitchen, appliances did not collect social security. That day was the end of their time together, and It might have also been the end of her own career unless she could find another way fix her boss his daily 5:17 tea.

She scampered out of the kitchen, swung on the doorway to gain momentum, and propelled herself as quickly and as silently as possible across SPR's main room, finally arriving at Lin's office door, shifty eyed and on a mission. Ever so cautiously, she opened the door and scanned the lobby once more before slipping into her stoic co-workers technological domain. Temporarily blinded by the many computer screens glaring in front of Lin, she took a moment to allow her eyes to adjust, and then whispered frantically at the now quizzical raven haired man, "Lin! Do you have… Anything! Um…"

"You will have to be a little more specific, Mai…" He answered, trying in vain to prepare himself for whatever was about to come out of the girl's mouth. He'd known Mai for quite a long time, but still sometimes failed to properly brace himself for her frantic, and generally nonsensical antics. She commonly referred to these as "Dangerous Maneuvers." He removed himself from these "Maneuvers" as often as he could, but sometimes they were just… Unavoidable. The wide eyed girl standing before him took a deep breath, and made another attempt at explaining her plight.

"Hephaestus is dead! Well… Crippled, really! And I need… Something!" She said, still whispering, but flailing her arms about herself, as if that would aid in Lin's understanding of the situation.

"Are we having a discussion about Greek mythology, Mai? Just…" Lin let out a sigh, and holding the bridge of his nose, said, "What do you need, exactly?" He had clearly already given up on deciphering the girl's energetic explanation, and hoped only that this conversation, and whatever "crisis" had occurred, would soon come to an end.

"I need to heat something!" Mai said, as if this were obvious to her exasperated co-worker. "This is a tea emergency!… Emergency!" Lin looked at her blankly and blinked a few times before letting out a sigh of defeat as he pulled a plain cardboard box out from under a bookshelf next to his desk while Mai flapped about impatiently. He rummaged around in the nondescript package, and Mai grew even more curious as she listened to the clinking and clacking of the mysterious box's contents. When Lin pulled out a Bunsen Burner, It was Mai's turn to stare in confusion.

"I don't need to heat a beaker, Lin! This is not a science experiment!" She said, breaking out of her stupor.

"Honestly, Mai, it doesn't seem like you have a lot of options at the moment," he replied. As much as he respected Naru, Lin knew full well that he became an absolute monster without Mai's tea.

With a heavy sigh and a sullen nod, she took the aged burner from her deadpan co-worker and turned to leave the office, only to be stopped by another, far more threatening, black-clad opponent.

"Well…. Hey, Naru… Um… How long have you been standing there?" she inquired, hiding the burner behind her back and hoping he had missed the majority of their conversation.

"Long enough to know that you apparently plan to have me drink a science experiment,: Naru said to her, glaring down at his now pallid employee.

"But-but-but… The teapot is - and It's already five thirty and we don't have any… What else do you want me to do!?" Mai yelled, interrupting herself and stuttering through several emotions before settling on slightly offended indignation.

Naru allowed himself a silent pause before opening his mouth. He believed he recalled someone once telling to count to ten at times such as these. "Are you done?" he rudely inquired. In all fairness, he had only made it to six.

She only glared up at him in response, but her sullen gaze suddenly turned to complete confusion as Naru stalked across the office towards the coat rack. She was surprised; honestly, she didn't think she had rattled him that much. Just before Mai said something about his apparent overreaction, he turned back to her, coat in hand looking slightly bemused. "Aren't you coming?"

Although the image of the two of them shopping for teapots was one Mai found simultaneously terrifying and hilarious, it would not come to fruition just then. Mai was just shrugging into her coat as her boss opened the front door, and instead of a clear pathway to their kitchenware destination, found two women with their fists raised and frozen, clearly caught in mid-knock.

**Thank you and Welcome to my personal first fic! Although I usually don't write fanfiction, writing for the Ghost Hunt crew really helps me loosen up and get creative as a writer. (It's short, but shorter chapters make faster chapters…)**

**I'm trying extra hard to keep everything from getting OOC, overly corny, etc. so absolutely feel free to call me out on any of that! I would actually love it if you did.**

**Don't be shy and please point out any mistakes or issues you find, seriously tear me to shreds! -Jude**


	2. They're not Waving: Second Entry

Case 1 : They're Not Waving : Second Entry

_Dead dogs only want to live again_

_-Iron and Wine [Serpent Charmer]_

"Ancient burial ground"

"No way, Mai. Be creative. It'll all be about a jealous husband."

"Yasu, if that's all you've got, how can you tell me to be creative?" She shook her head in mock disapproval before resuming her classing thinking pose.

"Mai, stop trying to look at your own eyebrows," Yasu continued to mock her, "I promise you it's impossible."

Just as she had opened her mouth to let out her new prediction about cliched, bitter illegitimate children, a glare from Naru in the passenger seat wiped all of her excitement away. "We don't do _creative guesswork_." He said, spitting out the phrase as if those two words were the most vile to ever grace his lips before turning back to the slush covered road. "If I need to give anyone a lecture on how the scientific method before we even get there, I'm leaving both of you in the van."

"So you can make threats but not eye contact, then?" Mai quipped lightly.

"Let's not forget that _some people_ try to use bunsen burners for beverages." His tone was frigid, and the other passengers were decidedly grateful for his lack of eye contact in that moment.

"He rests his case." Yasu said to Mai, mimicking the expression he imagined Naru was aiming at the asphalt. Tired of their games already and feeling the beginnings of a headache ten minutes into the ride, he shot backwards the cruelest and dirtiest look in his facial repertoire. Which, although admittedly not particularly big on variety, had quite a bit of spite in stock.

Facing the road once more, he swore to himself he wouldn't look back again for anything, or he'd get sucked right back into their antics. They knew exactly how to get a rise out of him, and this case already had him pinching the bridge of his nose. Although their destination wasn't particularly exotic, and was one of the closest investigations to SPR's office they'd had yet, the age of the building and its bizarre history seemed like incredibly annoying potential contributors to whatever could be haunting it. Not that he would engage in _foolish guesswork_, but a building old enough to have been a schoolhouse, juvenile detention center, and animal shelter, among numerous other occupations couldn't possibly come without some sort of baggage.

The over-emotional realtors who had interrupted them on his doorstep, after being invited inside by an overly-compassionate Mai, had regaled them with tales of "evidence" of the haunting. Red stains were called "bloodstains" and deemed "irremovable" while equipment almost a century old would supposedly run in the quiet hours of the night. Both of his assistants had been uncharacteristically skeptical of these claims, and Naru himself was internally tearing apart the points these hysterical women were bringing up. At first, his only reason behind taking the ridiculousness on was gathering some data on industrial hauntings, but the building's extensive history as the host to a bizarre number of short-lived business endeavors was just statistically unlikely...

Behind his private, and perhaps unscientific musings, Mai and Yasu spent the rest of the ride playing silent games of odds and evens and missing the company of the rest of the usuals. They may have only had a few hours to wait until the gang would be reunited and up to the usual antics, but it seemed an eternity to those in the backseat, while Naru silently thanked the second jobs that kept the rest of the usual noisy bunch from increasing headache levels in his van, at least for now.

"-ah?" Mai muttered to herself in quiet confusion. Turning the nickel plated key over in her hand she checked again for the tiny characters reading "Toru" before giving the lock another go. She leaned her head in closer to the lock, turning it to the right repeatedly, jiggling the key and closing one eye in concentration. Maybe some kid stuck a piece of tin foil in there… What if she got close enough, would she be able to see it if there was one-

"Left." Abruptly returning to upright, Mai's posture was suddenly rigid and her face innocent and wide-eyed. That voice had been. Too. Close.

"Why would I move to the left if I have the key? You can't open the door then-" She stuttered, trying to make herself appear more composed and less like a confused prairie dog.

With a low sigh, inaudible really if you weren't expecting it, Naru hefted a cardboard box under one arm and took the scratched key from his assistant. Jamming it perhaps a little _too_ harshly in the lock, he gave it a hard and ultimately unsuccessful twist left. Mai gave him a pointed look, that seemed to suggest she would have him apologize to the door. Naru's frigid stare spoke just as many volumes, and he held her indignant gaze while turning the key once more to the left, gently this time. The gray door swung open with ease as each of them rolled their eyes at the other. Naru walked briskly past her, eager to get out of the January air. "No more door privileges," he called back, clearly satisfied with himself.

Any quips either of the two had been about to make died away, killed by the suffocating atmosphere that pressed down on them as they entered the Toru building. The team had seen the pictures already, and had been shown perhaps too many by the two realtors who had interrupted the teapot expedition with this case. The aging factory they stood in was to be, somehow, made into the "high end studio apartments," so eagerly described by their clients. However, it always seemed that these redevelopments of ancient buildings provoked the supernatural. Naru himself may have been considering a persuasive paper on the subject, which would have explained to his confused young assistant why he had taken this particular case, out of all of the boring sounding ones that he usually refused. However, it was personal policy to keep her in the dark, as well as incredibly entertaining.

Mai's eyes traced the ceiling as she wondered at the innumerable rows of dangling fluorescent lights. A few of the vaguely bell-shaped seemed to sway with some imaginary breeze while others were so thickly encased with rust, she doubted they could move at all anymore. Shaking off her thoughts, which were quickly moving towards accident predictions, Mai went back into the cold wind to unload the van with the others.

Usually their cases had tended to be in more traditional spaces. She could remember mostly houses, a few hotels, and the stray school, but this one was wide open and industrial. The line of box carrying moved back and forth up a case of sturdy but clanking metal stairs leading up to what appeared to be an observation room, according to her best guess. Mai thought sarcastic apologies to herself and the scientific method for daring to _assume_, but it was clear that this wide-windowed room was intended to allow managers to watch over the factory floor.

The whole situation was terribly convenient, to be honest, but without the customary tour by the client, Mai was left wondering at the contents of the other floors.

"Right?" said Yasu, who had walked in with the last box and caught her looking at the stairs directly across from the observation room. "Hey, boss! I'll go with Mai-chi to do that temperature check?" He called down to Naru, who was already approaching with the thermometer.

"You're not wasting my time, Yasu. Go exploring on your own time." Although admittedly _true_, the words dashed the hopes of Naru's youngest subordinates whose shoulders drooped in unison.

Taking the electronic thermometer with a dejected sigh, Mai snatched up her clipboard before crossing the factory to start recording temperatures on the uppermost floor. Mai was more eager to take a look around than she would care to admit to her boss. Lest it give Naru the satisfaction of being completely right about her and Yasu itching to explore, she resisted the urge to bound up the stairs until she knew he couldn't see her from the windows of the Base.

Standing exactly where his assistant had expected, glaring out the glass panes Naru allowed himself a smirk of amusement, as he'd caught Mai's poorly masked enthusiasm. He could clearly see her take the last six stairs in his sight from the base in two leaps. Lin and Yasu glanced up at each other quizzically at the tiny sigh from their boss's direction as Naru gave a slight shake of his head. Expecting to hear a squeak and a crash from Mai's direction, he kept a few seconds watch before turning away.

After finding three identical floors, Mai's excitement was fading into exasperation. How was she supposed to get accurate temperature readings when each floor was essentially one enormous room? Wouldn't it be a completely different temperature near the windows than it was in the center? She resorted to taking five temperatures on each main floor, one in each corner and one in the center, hoping this would at least come off as a valiant effort back at the base.

Each floor's observation room was so similar that it wouldn't be at all difficult to forget what floor you were even on, and none of them gave off any readings that were even remotely abnormal. She couldn't remember ever having to really take readings of a closet, but Mai was desperate for at least some usable data and had taken to marking down the readings from the storage closets below the observation rooms. Glancing at the last few empty lines on her clipboard, she turned the brass knob of the fourth floor storage closet. She was glad to be near the end, looking down at the second to last temperature reading and hoped that someone back at base would have found something interesting by then.

With her vision cast down over the thermometer, Mai hadn't expected anything but the usual identical closet until she noticed the odd coloring of the cement floor. Giving the room a glance, she felt her breath stop and every muscle tense as she saw the source of the maroon stain. She exhaled raggedly and took a step back out of the doorway as her eyes travelled up the body of the dead dog bloodying the floor. In that moment Mai almost expected its black fur to gently rise and fall as it slept, but someone - or something, had made sure that would never happen again.

**Sorry if that was too long/gross/wordy/OOC/salty/whoknows!**

**I'd love your reviews, and please remember to tear me to shreds,**

**-Jude**


	3. They're Not Waving: Third Entry

Case 1: They're Not Waving : Third Entry

_They thought me broken, that was tongue was coated lead,_

_But I just couldn't make my words make sense to them._

_If you only listen with your ears… I can't get in._

_-Radical Face [The Mute]_

Lin had just been plugging in the last of the monitors when he began to hear distant metallic noises. He lifted his head from the shelves, stiff, still, and straining to identify the dull thuds. Rats? Did a bird get in somehow? As the subdued ruckus grew stronger, his head swung towards the window in sudden realization.

Noticing Lin's sudden movement and following his gaze across the building, Naru slowly rose from his seat. There was no rush, as she had quite a few stairs to go down, allowing him the time to straighten his already straight collar. Yasu watched his boss brush himself up in this manner from his vantage point on the other side of the metal shelf he was assembling. Pushing his glasses further up on his nose, he thought to himself that this might the beginnings of a beautiful theory. Maybe, maybe, he thought, Mai makes him lose his composure so much, he feels he has to _accumulate extra_ before she walks in? That didn't feel quite right, and with a barely detectable shake of his head, he thought that instead perhaps the levels of chaos Mai could carry into a room threw the universe off balance, and this was nature's way of sorting it out. Yes, obviously, Yasu thought, patting himself on the back, mentally thanking his boss for protecting the world from sure destruction with mock solemnity.

Every theory Yasu had established about his boss's behaviors flew right out the door when Naru abruptly ripped it open and quickly descended the metal stairs to the factory floor. He and Lin both flinched as the door crashed carelessly into the wall behind them while the two peeked over the window at the spectacle.

Stumbling dangerously down the final step, Mai was barreling in the direction of the base, her eyes wide and breaths ragged. It was only when they saw the maroon tracks her sneakers left as she crossed the floor that they understood Naru's uncharacteristic urgency. They might be experts on the supernatural, and you could even go so far as to call them scholars of life after death, but the SPR group was certainly not accustomed to _real_ blood. Yasuhara kept his breath half-held until Mai and Naru were both safely back at the base thinking that although the investigators might know what they're stuff, they weren't crime fighters, and they were in no way ready for a murder investigation.

Having descended every stair in the building more-or-less unscathed, it was only natural that Mai would have to crack her jaw on her way _up_ the metal flight that lead up to the base. Breathing hard and only just beginning to come down from the panicked adrenaline rush, her face felt like it was radiating splotchy heat while her thoughts whirled loudly and uncontrollably. Mai picked herself up with large, loud breaths and struggled against the urge to sit back down exactly where she was and yell impossibly loudly at her ankles from the fetal position. If she only looked down as she took slower stomps up the stairs, maybe, just maybe she could contain herself. _They're going to get mad - they're going to see me all scrunched up and splotchy and - There's no ice here and that's definitely leaving a - Blood on the stairs - Blood on _me.

Lin thought the girl looked like the human equivalent of an overheating car engine. She could only force herself along that fast for so long until the smoke clouds started.

"What did you do?" Asked Naru, in a voice he just _might_ have thought calming and solidifying, but really came across as something closer to apathetic.

"Are you _JOKING?! _Is this a _JOKE?!"_ These were exactly the smoke clouds that Lin had predicted. "Last time I checked, it was a little too cold for it to be _April Fools_!"

Defuse, Yasuhara thought to himself, defuse! He dragged his seething, borderline hyperventilating, co-worker to the ragged leather couch against the back wall. "Ne, Mai, it can't be April Fools if the only joke here is me! Am I right?..." _Lame._ He chided himself. _Come on, Yasu, pull out the big guns-_

"If you're quite finished, you can tell us what happened." Although Naru looked pitiable at this point, pinching the bridge of his nose hard enough to leave tiny red marks, he still wasn't scoring any points with his hysterical assistant.

"Oh, I'm not _finished!_ I want to know what kind of case even _is_ this, and what exactly _finished _that dog upstairs!"A swift glance from Naru had Lin at the door of the base.

"_Mai," _Her boss's voice was exasperated, but possibly softer than she'd ever heard it. "_Please."_

"Fourth Floor." Her breaths quickened again as every bit of description dragged the image closer to her mind, "Storage Closet." Beside her on the worn black couch, Yasuhara gave her shoulder a reassuring squeeze. Mai closed her eyes and slowed her breathing as Lin left.

She was seething and a bit red in the face once more as she dialed the phone. She got it, they needed more information, and she had to call the so _rudely_ absent clients. Reasonable. What definitely _wasn't_ was how apparently Naru had sent Lin up to look at the dog not to collect it or set up a camera or anything but to check that it was even _real_. Mai might not have ever had a dog, but she was pretty sure that everyone on Earth knew a dog when they saw one. Alive, dead, whatever. Canines. Yeah, she got it.

Her boss, who apparently thought she was so ignorant she didn't know basic domestic animals, was busy on the radio directing Lin as he set up the cameras. Naturally, Mai took this opportunity to mutter to herself while the phone rang dully in her ear. Just as she was seriously considering that the clients had just forgotten they had hired SPR in the first place, Mai heard a young voice on the other end.

"U-um, Hi. Hello!"

"Hello, this is Taniyama Mai from SPR, is our client Makoto there?" Mai's 'phone voice' was so dang chipper compared to her furious murmurings just seconds ago that Yasuhara couldn't help but chuckle.

"Yes, this is she- This is Makoto, and, really thank you so much for agreeing to take-"

"Uhuh, yeah your case is quite interesting, yes. That's actually why I'm calling. I'll be calling miss Ino, as well!" Mai had caught Yasuhara's giggling. With some method entirely beyond him, she was not only being _impressively_ passive aggressive with their clients, she was keeping up this cheery phone voice while glaring him down with intensity. Yeah, definitely intense. Also lengthy.

"O-oh, well Ino is actually right here, so-" Although Mai's voice was forcedly lighthearted, the women on the other end of the phone seemed to be catching her drift."

"Great!" Mai interrupted, "I was really just calling to ask you two to come down to your building!" No normal human, not even Mai, would really be this chipper. Still eavesdropping, Yasuhara winced with sympathy for their clients. However, this was definitely nothing compared to facing Naru, who had been too disgusted with the clients to even call them himself. If he was willing to let Mai handle his cellphone _unsupervised_? He must be livid.

Mai continued talking to the two women, who were trying to get a word in, but all that was really getting through were their uncomfortable vocal squirmings. It might have been more accurate to say that she was talking _at_ them. "We would just appreciate it _so_ much if you would both come down here to your building as soon as you can! Oh, and really, before I go I just wanted to ask if you two knew anything about a dog in this building? Hm? No? Well, I'm sure you'll understand why I'm asking when you get here! See you then, I guess, thank- "

Hearing Mai's tone suddenly change, Yasuhara and Naru turned around quizzically.

The voice coming through the other end of the phone sounded eerily close. The sound had started only as a whisper, but this voice sounded like it was right next to her, whispering right in her ear, not like it was on the other end of some phoneline. The thought of whatever was getting louder and louder in her ear being that close to her made Mai's heartbeat quicken with panic although she couldn't even see its face.

"... you-... nev-... capitalist _scum, they wi_-... just like them, they'll all pa-" She might not have understood, or even been able to hear everything that voice was saying, but it was so enraged. It sounded murderous, and with every disjointed phrase it sounded more distorted more guttural.

"I-I…" Mai stuttered, back at the phone, her voice wavering and her eyes filling with hysteria. "W-Wh-Who is thi-" Her voice cracked and Naru saw tears beginning to form in her eyes before he grabbed the phone away from her ear.

There was nothing more frustrating than watching Mai panic over something they couldn't even see, over something that the rest of them couldn't even _hear. _"Hello?" he yelled before he had even brought his cellphone all the way to his ear. Although he strained his ears to hear whatever could have sounded so terrifying, he heard nothing but the sound of the call disconnecting.

**Hey guys! Sorry this one took a bit, but I had some issues figuring out where exactly to go, ya know? The background is allllll there, but some of what happens to the crew might be a surprise, even to me… so. hah. heh. he.**

_**Please**_** tell me about anything confusing/wrong/inaccurate/annoying! Tear me apart, guys. I'm loving looking at the story traffic. And would like to give a shoutout to someone who might read this in Norway. Hello, Norway.**

**[Disclaimer: life isn't fair and Ghost Hunt isn't mine]**


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